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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Troops, MILF rebels ink truce
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- The guns are again silent in Midsayap after government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) agreed to a ceasefire after four days of fighting that led to thousands of residents fleeing their homes.
Evacuees, who prefer to sleep it out along the road instead of their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire, shrug the incident off as a seasonal thing. It's harvest season that's why, they said.
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Incidents like this happen every year during the harvest season. They alleged that MILF rebels visit several barangays during harvest time to demand their share.
"This is one of the few times when the contending parties fired at each other such that it was blown out of proportion," a resident said.
Secretary Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on the peace process, said the two factions have agreed to stop firing, reposition their people, create a joint monitoring group to investigate the incident and let a buffer team enforce the ceasefire.
Dureza said their main concern now is the evacuees estimated to be around 6,000 coming from five affected barangays.
Most of the evacuees have opted to stay along the highways instead of staying in evacuation centers.
A task force composed of local, national, and international agencies has been created to address the needs of the thousands of evacuees affected by the latest clash in Midsayap.
Task Force Natularanmu, taken from the initials of the affected barangay, was created by Dureza to oversee the relief operations in Midsayap.
The task force is composed of the social welfare department, office of civil defense, Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) and International Red Cross (ICRC) as well as the police and the military.
Dureza said the social welfare agency along with the PNRC and the ICRC will look into the plight of the evacuees while the police and the military will take care of the security aspect.
Midsayap Mayor Romeo Araña said he will ask the police and the military to secure the farmers who would like to harvest their crops in the affected barangays.
The affected barangays were earlier declared as peace sanctuaries by the government.
"We don't want peace sanctuaries to go this way," Dureza said.
He said a long-term effort is needed to prevent same incident from recurring.
Among the long-term effort referred to by Dureza was the creation of a buffer team that would ensure the enforcement of the ceasefire agreement.
Dureza said the immediate diffusion of the armed conflict in Midsayap just shows how efficient were the ceasefire mechanisms like the International Monitoring Team and the government-MILF CCCH.
He said had there been no presence of the ceasefire mechanisms in the area, the armed conflict would have escalated.
The fighting between the MILF and the military started Thursday after the Moro rebels allegedly raided several barangays to get the crops of Christian residents in the area.
But the MILF denied this, saying that residents in the area are Muslim farmers who had lived there even before the Christians moved in.
Dureza said the conflict is an annual occurrence brought about by the long-standing land feud.
The separatist group MILF accused members of the Civilian Volunteers Organizations, also known as Bantay Bayan, for attacking MILF forces in Barangay Rangeban last January 25.
As a result, three militiamen were allegedly killed in action and several others wounded.
The military, meanwhile, said it was the Muslim militants who first attacked pro-government militiamen and their families while they were harvesting rice in a village.
Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said the military first responded with a "peacekeeping force" but was prompted to retaliate after the massing of 200 rebels who fired mortars at soldiers.
"The soldiers came in because there were already threats to life and property," he said.
Ando said at least three MILF guerrillas and a pro-government militiaman have died in the clashes, which prompted Sunday's meeting between government officials and MILF leaders.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said they will file a formal protest with the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) over the recent incident.
Military authorities on the other hand are also filing a formal complaint against the MILF for raiding the villages. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (January 30, 2007 issue)
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